Until recently, Prenda Law was a lawsuit factory, suing thousands of "John Doe" defendants for allegedly violating copyright by downloading pornographic films through BitTorrent. But late last year, when a Minnesota man named Alan Cooper accused the firm of using his name without permission as the head of one of its shell companies, the firm was forced into damage control mode. At a hearing last week, the firm's senior officials invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions about Cooper's allegations.

After weeks of dodging questions about whether the "Alan Cooper" who signed documents on behalf of the shell company AF Holdings was the same Alan Cooper who has accused Prenda of identity theft, Prenda has finally taken a position on the question. In a Monday court filing for the case formally known as Ingenuity LLC v. John Doe (PDF),Prenda suggests that Cooper knew perfectly well what he was involved with. The filing implies that Cooper is lying when he says he had nothing to do with Prenda's porn-trolling operation and that the Minnesotan has gone off the deep end.

“Acting erratic”

For several years, Cooper served as the caretaker for Prenda mastermind John Steele, who owns property in Minnesota, north of the Twin Cities. Cooper lived in Steele's guest house and looked after the property while Steele was out of town.

Berry said that at first, Cooper "appeared to behave pretty responsibly toward Mr. Steele's property." He claimed that "Alan would routinely ask John how he wished he could help Mr. Steele for all the things Mr. Steele did for Alan, such as allowing him to live on the property for free."

Allegedly, one of those favors was signing paperwork for Steele's porn-trolling operations. "It was clear from their conversations and references to Mr. Steele's legal work that Alan was involved working with Mr. Steele," Berry reported. "Alan did not seem upset about this relationship, and in fact often made jokes about not having to worry about ever buying beer again due to his assisting Mr. Steele."

Berry said that on at least one occasion, Cooper asked Steele, "How's my porn company doing?"

But according to Berry, things started to go downhill in late 2011. "Alan began exhibiting unusual behavior," Berry wrote, "acting erratic, frequently threatening to hurt others. I later found out from Alan that the days he had acted very unusual were the ones in which he had not taken certain antipsychotic medications his doctor had prescribed."

By the summer of 2012, "Alan's mental state had further deteriorated and I felt very uncomfortable to be alone around him," Berry claimed. In one incident, on August 13, Cooper allegedly threatened to hurt Berry and his girlfriend. Berry said he wanted to file charges against Cooper but was dissuaded from doing so by Steele.

A text message allegedly sent to Brent Berry by Alan Cooper.

Brent Berry

To back up his allegations, Berry included screenshots of text messages he claims were sent to him by Cooper. In one, Cooper supposedly wrote, "I am sorry 4 being messed up in the head. I know how I think is not right. I want 2 be a non messed up person."

In another, reproduced above, Cooper supposedly asked Berry to accompany him to his doctor's office so he could "TELL MY DOC THE TRUTH HOW I AM."

Unreliable witness?

For this and other reasons, Prenda is urging Judge Otis Wright not to credit Cooper's testimony in deciding whether to sanction Prenda and two of its employees, attorney Paul Duffy and paralegal Angela Van Den Hemel. John Steele and Paul Hansmeier, who are widely regarded as the masterminds behind Prenda's porn-trolling operation, did not sign on to the Prenda brief.

"Contrary to his testimony, Cooper had some knowledge of and involvement with [Prenda shell company] AF Holdings," Prenda's brief argued. "And Cooper’s mental state has deteriorated to the point of making serious threats to shoot Berry, which has led to treatment for his mental illness."

Moreover, Prenda claimed, "Cooper has a financial stake in the determination of whether he signed or authorized the signature on the assignment agreements appearing over his printed name."

Cooper appeared at a March 11 hearing in Judge Wright's courtroom. At that hearing, he testified that Steele's "goal was $10,000 a day from mailing all the letters." Cooper played a threatening message Steele had left on Cooper's voicemail. But Duffy, Steele, and other Prenda officials skipped the March 11 hearing, so they did not have an opportunity to cross-examine Cooper.

Ars attempted to contact Cooper's attorney, Paul Godfread, by e-mail and Twitter, but we have not received a response. We will update this story if and when he gets back to us.

Wow, talk about reaching the "bang on the table" phase of the old proverb.

But at this point, even if any of this was even true - which considering the integrity of the people making the claim, would require a mountain of proof on their end to even begin to discredit Cooper - would this even do anything to halt the coming landslide caused by the culmination of all of their disreputable behavior and practices to date?

Probably not, but it's still funny to watch them be the ones thrashing about in desperation for once.

Now this is a twist I did NOT expect. This gem of a story just keeps on giving. Even well past the point where things should be wrapping up, the gold just keeps on delivering itself.

I understand the popcorn jokes are getting a bit stale by now, but it dosent matter anyway. There's none left to be had, all the stores are sold out. Gonna have to switch to pork-rinds or Doritos or something.

Now this is a twist I did NOT expect. This gem of a story just keeps on giving. Even well past the point where things should be wrapping up, the gold just keeps on delivering itself.

I understand the popcorn jokes are getting a bit stale by now, but it dosent matter anyway. There's none left to be had, all the stores are sold out. Gonna have to switch to pork-rinds or Doritos or something.

I got a family size bag of teriyaki beef jerky. But then I knew things like the Patel sanctions motion was coming.... :-)

It's from earlier today before this broke, but please go read popehat for Ken's analysis of the other cases still "active" across the country involving Prenda. I almost fell out of my chair when I read this:

Ken White wrote:

Duffy's response is not badly written, and doesn't seem to be wrong on the law, but it's not at all the response you'd expect from a lawyer being accused of what amounts to a nationwide criminal enterprise. It's like someone said "Ken, I have it on good authority that you routinely molest squirrels in a public park near your house," and I responded "your accusation is without merit because that park is private."

Assuming this info is correct: Why didn't he do a background check on the guy he has watching his property.Assuming this info is incorrect: Engaging is blatant libel/slander that can be trivially disproved in a COURTROOM? WOW

Did anyone else notice that the image is of an Iphone on Tmobile which did not have it in 2012? (you can preorder your 5 now finally). If any forensic expert took a look at that I am pretty sure they would question the authenticity of such phone. Either that they jail broke an Iphone (not legal anymore remember?) and let the judge question who has more character at that point. I'm just saying even if everything is as they say, they have just gave the court more questions.

So, their defense against having either appropriated without his permission, or perhaps induced this Alan Cooper to allow his identity and signature to be used in an alleged scheme to mask their law firm's pecuniary interest in litigation is that the person in question is incompetent?

It's like a porn circus run by trolls and people that don't know what else to do with their piles of money. If you are going to waste your stacks of cash you should buy a monster truck. EPA estimated fuel mileage on a full tank; 300 feet.

Did anyone else notice that the image is of an Iphone on Tmobile which did not have it in 2012? (you can preorder your 5 now finally). If any forensic expert took a look at that I am pretty sure they would question the authenticity of such phone. Either that they jail broke an Iphone (not legal anymore remember?) and let the judge question who has more character at that point. I'm just saying even if everything is as they say, they have just gave the court more questions.

People have been jailbreaking and unlocking their iPhones to get them to work on Tmobile for a while. I'm not assuming this guy was smart or savvy enough to do it... But maybe he paid someone to do it for him?

Wow. Just... wow. Let me get this straight, Prenda. You:- Steal your gardener's identify- Use stolen identity as head of your firm- Skip a trial where you could explain this theft- Say there is another Alan Cooper, then refuse to present him- Get lawyers to speak for you to avoid testifying- Plead the fifth to avoid self-incrimination- Dodge answering all questions- Claim not to know how your own firm operates or where the money goes

And after months of this asshattery, the best you can come up with is a couple pieces of paper? Not even a person testifying - just a written statement?? And an accusation based on a photocopy of a text message?

Did anyone else notice that the image is of an Iphone on Tmobile which did not have it in 2012? (you can preorder your 5 now finally). If any forensic expert took a look at that I am pretty sure they would question the authenticity of such phone. Either that they jail broke an Iphone (not legal anymore remember?) and let the judge question who has more character at that point. I'm just saying even if everything is as they say, they have just gave the court more questions.

Do messages persist in the cloud somewhere for iphones? Could be he's bought a new iphone and simply gone back to his old messages and photocopied the phone a week ago.

er, if they knew cooper was off his trolley, would that not be against the law for them to use him for legal documents ?

Read through Popehat's discussion of that issue: http://www.popehat.com/2013/04/08/prend ... ge-wright/ What I got out of it was that while it's legal to sign up a destitute crazy person as the head of a company, in this case it would only have been done to try and hide Steele's part in the holding company.

Michael Dugas, an attorney for AF Holdings, replied to Godfread's letter on Monday. "Godfread accuses AF Holdings LLC of being a sham corporation and fraudulently holding his client out as its CEO," Dugas wrote. "Both of these accusations are categorically false."

I read that as Dugas disclaiming any involvement in AF Holdings by the same Alan Cooper they are now swearing did, in fact, act as the CEO. Am I reading that wrong?

If Alan Cooper's elevator misses a few floors who is crazier the loons who used him or Mr. Cooper. I believe Mr Cooper is sane so the real loons are the Prenda idiots. They have an irate judge and now appear to be adding slander/libel and perjury to the list.

They expect people to believe that transparent load of crap? How dumb do they think the court is? The severe delay and absolute irrational appearance of this "evidence" is specious at best. It stinks of a last ditch effort to evade blame of any kind. These asshats are going to either end up in jail or financially and professionally ruined. Nobody will give these idiots a legal job ever again. Their little house of cards has fallen.

Wow. Just... wow. Let me get this straight, Prenda. You:- Steal your gardener's identify- Use stolen identity as head of your firm- Skip a trial where you could explain this theft- Say there is another Alan Cooper, then refuse to present him- Get lawyers to speak for you to avoid testifying- Plead the fifth to avoid self-incrimination- Dodge answering all questions- Claim not to know how your own firm operates or where the money goes

And after months of this asshattery, the best you can come up with is a couple pieces of paper? Not even a person testifying - just a written statement?? And an accusation based on a photocopy of a text message?

Prenda... words just cannot express how hard you fail.

You forgot to mention that the time stamp wasn't even visible on the text message, as such there is no way to confirm when the message was sent.

Wow. Just... wow. Let me get this straight, Prenda. You:- Steal your gardener's identify- Use stolen identity as head of your firm- Skip a trial where you could explain this theft- Say there is another Alan Cooper, then refuse to present him- Get lawyers to speak for you to avoid testifying- Plead the fifth to avoid self-incrimination- Dodge answering all questions- Claim not to know how your own firm operates or where the money goes

And after months of this asshattery, the best you can come up with is a couple pieces of paper? Not even a person testifying - just a written statement?? And an accusation based on a photocopy of a text message?

Prenda... words just cannot express how hard you fail.

You forgot to mention that the time stamp wasn't even visible on the text message, as such there is no way to confirm when the message was sent.

Purely as an aside, this annoys the crap out of me about the iPhone. Just time stamp every damn message ffs, it can't possibly be that ugly. End rant.

Since most of us are not lawyers, maybe there's something we're missing in all this, something simple that only lawyers understand that would, if we only knew it, would make all of this make sense. Like maybe THERE'S AN ANNUAL CONTEST FOR THE MOST F$%*ED UP NONSENSICAL ARGUMENT TO BE PRESENTED IN AN ACTUAL COURTROOM FOR THE YEAR.

I can't think of anything else, honestly. First prize is you're disbarred.

You forgot to mention that the time stamp wasn't even visible on the text message, as such there is no way to confirm when the message was sent.

FWIW, there are other "screencaps" where the messages have time and date stamps visible within the exhibit. Of course, without any other identification, it would be trivially easy for someone to ID anyone as "Cooper" in their contacts, and then hold that conversation with that person. I'm guessing they also will claim that the phone in question has now stopped working (as bolstered by the cracked screen), and unavailable for third party verification of the messages.

They better definitely have their ducks in a row. That statement makes several allegations that can be independently verified, including whether or not the guy actually reported the threat to the cops as he stated. It's only been 8 months. I would suspect that they haven't purged any records of reports yet. It also shouldn't be difficult to get Cooper's medical records to confirm or deny that he's supposed to be on medication. There's also the fact that he says the signature on the documents isn't his. Shouldn't be too difficult for a handwriting expert to compare signatures.

Even if Cooper does have a history of mental instability, that would tend to make him the perfect patsy for Prenda. Sign a bunch of documents in his name, making him technically the only identifiable person of responsibility, and if the shit ever hits the fan, well hey, they can't help it if the guy can't remember signing those documents. He's crazy!

Timothy B. Lee / Timothy covers tech policy for Ars, with a particular focus on patent and copyright law, privacy, free speech, and open government. His writing has appeared in Slate, Reason, Wired, and the New York Times.